Remember impermanence

In an early Autumn afternoon, the gentle breeze brings the scent of nature, the scent of grass and plants, into the small room. Perhaps in such weather, everyone wants to drop their soul into a quiet space to gnaw on the sadness that piled up through the hot summer days hurriedly. Moreover, when people are preparing to enter the new age of human life, and feel that the change in body is no longer the same as in the twentieth ages, the more worry there is to express:

The wind blewgently in the Autumn afternoon,

Who, in tranquil scene, can understand the heart

Looking forward to floating things

Let think of life more warm, less melancholy.

I, probably like many other people of the same age, also engrossed in working, chasing degrees, enjoying learning all possible when I was young. Many times I also stayed up all night to watch a movie and then fell asleep on the next day, or joined tireless festivals. Because I always think: I am still young, being young without playing until becoming old, you will regret it. So let live quickly, take into the labyrinth of futility with no way out.

 

I am not yet at the age of being called putting  one foot in the grave, but maybe tomorrow as each day passes, my body will grow a little older, I feel the day is shortened, my mind wanders and regretfully finds the past. At that moment that I will realize impermanence is not far away, that is present in the present moment. People still say: Nobody has ever shed tears without seeing a coffin. Yes, I also thought I was very young, why would I have to worry a lot, I still have a long way to go to be buried. Time goes by so, comes a day when the body is no longer as strong as before, "fragile" in front of the weather winds, unusually cold weather or because of work and life, I forgot to pay attention to the body, when “the body is not so well”, I have time to think. Indeed, time will take away the youth but it will give us a lot of memories and experiences that would have been better if I knew it when I was young.

Referring to impermanence, perhaps many people do not want to face, or dismiss it because they think it is unrealistic.Especially for those of my age, mentioning the two words of life and death, impermanence, is easily kicked out of the conversation.That more clearly reflects the fear of facing a harsh truth that anyone in the course of life must experience.I am fortunate that I have met the Dharma, have the opportunity to learn teachings and practice from revered masters, so I do not refuse to face that truth.

Mentioned here, I suddenly remembered the story of a father leaving a gem in the Sutras of Lotus Sutra. Before his death, the father asked his naughty son to keep the shirt in which he secretly put a gem in it. Later, when his father passed away in a short time, He fell into poverty and misery because of squandering wealth. But one day he happened to know that there was a gem in his shirt, he knew how to cherish and sold it with capital to do business, to build a career out of poverty, avoid begging for food everywhere.

I feel that I, like many others, have similarities with this boy. We have so much wealth and great fortune that we will not know how to cherish. We have youthful vigor, strong body, strong stature, we still have enough parents, lovable ones, have enough limbs to function…so many happy things that we don't know how to use. We just wear the destructive, eroding, wastefulness that tramples on those happiness.When I realize it, the hair color was fading, my heart was worn, the train of death was quietly waiting.Today, we can observe many phenomena right in front of our eyes,feel the devastating human destruction on natural treasures clearly, the life of all species. In the world, storms, hurricanes and natural disasters are happening more and more, facing them, how small humans are. At that time the most luxurious houses, great works of a thousand years that seem to last forever are also swept into the water. There’s only mud, everything is ruined. Until then we will consider that if not deforestation turned into urbanization, without destroying nature, things would probably have changed. Nature is also a heritage that people have forgotten for a long time, do not know how to protect, respectfully and then suffer immeasurable consequences.

Impermanence is not to be waited until the age 70, or when you see that the parent's hair being gray,but that is every Khana, every moment of observation that exists at sight. Let us not be too confident because of the ability to change the times, lofty construction, technological application  to control everything. But what we cannot change forever  is the law of birth, aging, disease and death: Formation – Existence – Destroyance – disappearance, which doesn't mean we are living  and waiting for death, or just to complain about old age and illness, worry about the material possessions we have created, but we have to know how to live each moment, to have mindfulness, to live deeply with the precious inheritance that the Buddha, ancestors, parents of the lineages left.

I have also complained many times anguish that why I am not like that or so, do not achieve something greater, then become boredom, despair, and torment myself and those around. But each time, I remind myself, return to the breath with the sutras, recite Buddha's name or Dharma lecture, poems to calm my body and mind. I know I'm happier than a lot of people, I know I have a spiritual inheritance, a happy fortune right in the front.

“Hey, the richest man

To go away from living from before!

Stop being friends with poverty

Go home, receive the fortune!

Offer each other happiness

And dwell in this moment.

Let go ofF the flow of suffering

Return to raise the living in hand.

(Quote “Châu ngọc Pháp Hoa  (The Pearl of Dharma Flower), poem: Nhất Hạnh)

In the process of life and death, nobody is not experiencing moments of loss, hurt because of impermanence.Contemplating that, I vow to live every moment fully, looking deeply to embrace happiness in body and mind. Although there are many storms ahead, both storms of soul and storms of life that human must pass, I hope that with the luggage of the Buddha and the ancestors' teachings, I will practice living to nurture the root, the root of soul so that it firmly ingrained into the ground.With the determination to practice mindfulness, do not contain a mind to crave illusory things but consider eternal happiness, it will be my luggage to help me have peace in the present, free to face the inevitable impermanence, that is also the noble teaching that my master often reminds: “For birth: do not desire, for death: not being frightened”

Buddhist of Hoa Phuc pagoda.